Field
This disclosure relates generally to the field of wound care. More particularly, it concerns methods and compositions for enzymatic debridement of wounds.
Description of Related Art
Debridement is an important part of the healing process for certain types of wounds. A variety of techniques have been employed in the removal of dead, damaged, or infected tissue from wounds including surgical, mechanical, chemical, and enzymatic techniques. Enzymatic debridement uses naturally occurring enzymes to digest the dead, damaged, or infected tissue. Several enzymatic debriding agents have been developed including collagenase (Santyl®), papain/urea (Accuzyme® (discontinued)), fibrinolysin/DNAse (Elase), and trypsin (Vasolex®).
Extracts derived from the pineapple plant (Ananas comosus) have also been investigated as debridement agents. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,197,291; 4,226,854; 4,329,430; 4,307,081; 5,106,621; 5,387,517; 5,830,739;and U.S. Publ. No. 2009/0148429.These efforts, however, have largely focused on isolating specific proteases or molecular weight fractions, which requires extensive processing of bromelain. Accordingly, there is a need for effective enzymatic debridement agents that can be obtained in large quantities and with relatively few processing steps.